


Christmas Rivals

by Leon_Alpen



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Soen no Kiseki/Akatsuki no Megami | Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Baking, Christmas Fluff, Elincia is determined, F/M, Fluff, Geoffrey is a bit oblivious, Lucia is also determined but she wants to show up Geoffrey, Secret Santa, but he tries, does it go well?, not really - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 17:11:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17125409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leon_Alpen/pseuds/Leon_Alpen
Summary: Geoffrey and Lucia end up in a sort of battle to see who will impress Elincia more at her party. In the end, it seems Geoffrey wins without a doubt.





	Christmas Rivals

It has been quite a week so far and it’s only Wednesday. Geoffrey and Lucia have had about five (mostly calm) debates so far over what exactly to bake for Elincia’s Christmas party. Though it was decided that Geoffrey would do the actual baking. Lucia would go get trinkets and gifts. That way, they both each have a unique item to present to Elincia and her guests.

Once that was settled, they ended up sitting on the sofa, mindlessly watching some documentary. “So, what exactly are you thinking about getting?” Geoffrey questions, glancing over at Lucia. She hums in thought and remains silent for several minutes.

“Well, she’s been looking at this one headband a lot recently. She was gushing over the handiwork put into it but deemed it too expensive. For the amount of effort put into it, I think twenty-five dollars is a reasonable price.” Lucia moves to sit cross legged on the sofa, leaning back. “What will you be baking?”

“Perhaps mincemeat pies. Those are always good,” deciding both of them were done watching the television, Geoffrey switches it off and tosses the remote onto the couch. This topic always seems to overpower everything else.

Lucia looks horrible concerned. “Making two of those or...?”

“Yes. Elincia will end up devouring them like last year. Have to make sure there’s enough for everyone.”

“Good. Though you have to admit, it was funny since you put too much brandy in those,” oh for the love of the-

“Gods, shut up. It was horrible,” not entirely horrible, but Geoffrey will never admit to it. Having a slightly tipsy Elincia clinging to him was something that he definitely wouldn’t mind repeating (though maybe have her sober). The only horrible thing was that she was able to remember it. She teased him about it for about three weeks. And it’s been brought up a handful of times since then.

Though it does make Geoffrey wonder if she possible reciprocates his own feelings. Chances of that are slim, but you never know.

Lucia just rolls her eyes, checks her phone, and says she’s going to bed. Geoffrey says he’ll do the same, and the conversation ends at that. Both go about their evening routines, and the house falls silent.

—

The morning brought about another petty argument about Elincia. Lucia also mentioned that today was her off day, and she’s going to make the most of it. It took every bit of Geoffrey’s willpower to not respond to that.

He then busied himself by preparing himself for work. It’s just past six in the morning. Why exactly is Lucia even awake? Oh, why bother? She’s got her own plans, and Geoffrey needs to planning what he’ll do exactly. He’s got the recipe, yes, but he may change it up. Maybe not use brandy. Sherry? Perhaps.

Geoffrey mindlessly goes about preparing for work. Checking his phone, it seems there’s no meetings today. Good. Everything can be laid out perfectly for tomorrow. He only needs to hope no emergencies pop up. His coworkers are reliable. Surely, they won’t do anything too extreme.

Double checking to make sure he has everything, he heads outside to his car. The sudden gust of chilled wind startles Geoffrey, and he has to take a moment to recollect himself. It’s getting colder each day and the winds aren’t letting up. Moving as quickly and as carefully as he can, he slides up to the car. He’s swift in getting inside and slamming the door, sighing out in relief since he’s safe from the cold. It doesn’t take much longer for the engine to start running and for him to be heading into the road.

Thirty minutes later, he manages to finally find a parking spot. Why have such a small parking lot for a fairly large company? Geoffrey will never know.

He takes a few minutes to psych himself up before heading out. Seeing someone else running to get inside was enough to get him to start moving. The icy winds assault him again. For the love of everything holy, why must it be like this? He stumbles, but thankfully he caught himself on a car.

Finally, the bliss of being inside. It’s so much warmer. The receptionist asks if he wants some hot chocolate. On the house for surviving the cold. And that he didn’t slip on the black ice just outside the door. Geoffrey didn’t even realize that was there. Though he gratefully takes the hot chocolate.

“How many people have slipped?” Geoffrey asks, taking a sip from his cup.

“About seven so far. Oh, and about ten or so minutes ago, two ladies crashed into each other. Guess how they landed?” the receptionist looks awfully smug.

“I wouldn’t have a clue.”

“One landed right on top of the other’s chest. Both were stunned for a second, but then they were quick to get inside.”

“Shocking. Were they all right?” well, isn’t that scary. Geoffrey’s glad it wasn’t him.

“Oh, yeah, just a bit jumbled.” The two share a short laugh before Geoffrey left. Well, wasn’t that awkward. Of course, he wasn’t just going to take the hot chocolate and leave. That’s rude. A bit of small talk never hurts. It sometimes can, but this wasn’t one of those moments.

A few minutes later sees Geoffrey arriving in his office. He just has to hope today isn’t an adventure, and he can make sure everything is absolutely perfect.

—

Towards the end of the day, Geoffrey realizes he’ll have plenty of extra time. It won’t matter if he spends as many minutes as he can on the mincemeat traybake. There’s going to be a number of hours left in the day. He should make something else...

A rather detailed search brings up St. Lucia buns. How funny. Wouldn’t that be amusing to bring along? He makes a short note of that, if he has extra time tomorrow.

Checking the time, he notices it’s nearing five. Coworkers are already getting ready to leave. For once, Geoffrey gets ready as well. He needs to figure out what he has at home and then buy supplies if needed. Though, in all honesty, he’ll probably do the shopping tomorrow. He should make sure he can safely beat what Lucia bought.

Geoffrey puts his laptop into his bag, alongside a binder filled with documents. His phone goes off. A text? Strange at this time of day.

Elincia

hey geoffrey. i may need extra help setting up the party since ike is sick  
and you know soren will be glued to his side  
what time do you think you can come over saturday?

Well, this is unexpected. Geoffrey feels his body warm up just a tad, but it’s ignored. He begins typing a response.

Sometime around three should work. I have nothing going on besides the party.

Turning off his phone, he pockets it and looks over his cubicle once more. Nothing else left to grab- wait, his water bottle. Stuffing that into his bag, Geoffrey finally exits, waving to a few of his coworkers before heading to clock out.

The computer is being used at the moment, the person using it hurriedly attempting to clock out. Geoffrey sighs. This may take a minute. His phone buzzes in his pocket and he fishes it out to check it. Probably Elincia again.

Elincia

awesome. ill see you then

Geoffrey mindlessly sighs, wondering how this will go, being alone with Elincia. Lucia will likely be upset at this and ask (politely demand) to go along as well. Best to not say anything to her unless Elincia shares this.

The person at the computer finally manages to clock out and nearly sprints off. Geoffrey accidentally makes eye contact with another coworker. Both look down the hall that person ran down, back at each other, and shrug and carry on. Geoffrey actually takes the time to look at what he’s doing while clocking out. He does so in a minute and he strolls out of the building. Nobody familiar is seen. Nobody to say goodbye too.

Two more days, Geoffrey muses. Only two more before the big day. And preparation day is tomorrow. Hopefully Lucia hasn’t done anything big.

—

Safe to say, Geoffrey’s hopes of Lucia not doing anything big went down the drain. She purchased the headband Elincia wants, goody bags for every single guest (plus five extras, just to be safe), and a fifty dollar gift card to that one popular and expensive restaurant she adores. The goody bags alone would’ve put Geoffrey in a bad position, truly. There’s a mini candy cane in each, a note thanking them for attending (handwritten), and a small piece of milk and dark chocolate. Who in the right mind would actually handwrite those notes? It must’ve taken a lot of time, given how neat the handwriting is.

“And you plan on baking what?” Lucia asks in a teasing voice.

Geoffrey knows the raspberry cake alone won’t do. What’s something else he had planned... Oh!

He can’t help but feel just a little smug as he speaks. “That cake we discussed yesterday alongside St. Lucia buns,” safe to say, Lucia seems impressed, if not threatened by the idea of being outdone. Yet she can do nothing more, as she has work tomorrow. Maybe a little something can be done on Saturday before the party, but that likely won’t happen.

“Interesting. Be sure to not add salt instead of sugar to that cake, all right?” oh, of course she would bring up the incident from five years ago. Trying to attack him, is she? Well, that won’t work easily.

“I don’t plan on doing that,” Geoffrey does his best to not sound bothered. It only partially works and Lucia laughs before grabbing her phone. It seems that conversation has ended, thankfully. He, too, gets his phone and settles himself on the sofa. Elincia texted again.

Elincia

and while youre with me i have special presents for you and lucia!

Geoffrey stares at it for some time, trying to form some response. Though all he can think about is what this gift is. At least it’s two separate gifts. That’s alone makes it special. Now he’s thinking he should bake a small treat just for her. No, that’ll look too extra. Just the cake and buns. That’s it. Lucia has the knickknacks and that sort of thing.

Lucia then offhandedly mentions that they should get dinner. Geoffrey’s stomach rumbles in agreement.

Geoffrey hums and pockets his phone. “I’d prefer keeping the kitchen clean for tomorrow so there’s little chance of the flavors being ruined by any leftover residue,” it seems Lucia is agreeing with that without saying anything. Amazing.

“Should I call... uh, what’s a restaurant that we both like?” They both sit in silence for a good few minutes, trying to come of with something.

Lucia claps her hands. She’s come up with something. “What about the Mexican restaurant that Elincia recommended? Still haven’t eaten there.”

“That’ll do nicely.”

They both quickly make themselves presentable and leave. Nothing much happens at the restaurant. They share expectations of the party, banter over who will impress Elincia more, and Lucia teases Geoffrey regarding how close he is to Elincia. Perfectly normal. At least they’re in public and it can’t escalate any further than this. Though he seriously wouldn’t mind strangling her right now.

The food arriving also helped cool things down. Both were able to eat without saying anything. Then a short round of rock-paper-scissors ended in Lucia paying for dinner. For the rest of the evening, nothing too eventful occurred. They went home, Lucia went to her room and camped there. Geoffrey was taking his time in the kitchen, double checking everything to be sure he had what he needed.

He needs to buy cranberries and sultanas tomorrow. That and yeast and Quark cheese (what kind of name is that?). He’s only made bread a handful of times. Of course he wouldn’t have yeast around. The last time he made it was about two years ago. He can’t recall what he tried to make exactly, but that doesn’t matter.

All that currently matters is the fact he’s got everything prepped for tomorrow. And that he should sleep. Sleep is a good idea.

—

Friday arrives like a miracle beautifully wrapped in a golden box. Geoffrey has the house to himself. He can take his sweet time getting everything prepared. However, there’s some shopping that needs to be done. He’s got a list, and added a few things that he forgot to put down last night.

The shopping trip itself wasn’t eventful. It was eight in the morning. Of course nobody would be here. Most people are at work or school. Though that group of kids huddling around the alcohol section made Geoffrey second guess himself. But he got everything he needed, and was ready to leave.

On the drive home, he decides to start with the St. Lucia buns. Those needs some time to prove, and he can begin the mincemeat traybake during that time. Is he worried about shaping these? Yes. Very much yes.

Now that he’s home, he’s quick to get inside and into the kitchen. What an adventure these will be.

Geoffrey looks at the recipe for the St. Lucia buns, and gets out everything he needs. There’s plenty of countertop space, so that’s not a concern. And it’s clean.

All right. He takes a deep breath, and reads the first few lines of instructions. Put milk, saffron threads, and butter over a low heat until lukewarm and the butter is melted. Okay. Easy start. It takes about ten minutes for this step to be done. Yellow milk is something he wasn’t expecting to see today. Well, saffron does do that. The recipe also doesn’t mention removing the saffron threads. Do they stay? They’re staying.

Next is the dry ingredients; flour, salt, yeast, and caster sugar. Oh, now the Quark cheese is useful. A fun part! Mixing it all together with his hands. It takes sometime, but eventually the bowl is clean and the dough is soft in his hands. Another fun part is coming up. Kneading. He remembers nearly beating up the dough when he first started making bread... those loaves didn’t turn out very well due to being overworked (and often over baked as well).

Geoffrey has to get a timer (after he washed his hands, of course) to make sure he doesn’t knead the dough for more than the required time.

Success! He’s done with that. Now, into a bowl to prove until it’s doubled in size? Well, it’s liable to sort of collapse when he touches it so maybe- why bother thinking about that? To the mincemeat streusel! (He definitely did not just now learn the actual name of it).

But wait, he has to put the dough somewhere warm. Where in the name of everything holy can he find a warm spot when this house is absorbing the cold? Wait a minute... Lucia normally keeps her room warm. Hopefully she won’t mind. He just won’t mention this to her.

With the dough now safe in Lucia’s room, Geoffrey decides to set a timer to go off in an hour and a half so he remembers to check the dough.

Now to the mincemeat streusel. The more he looks at the recipe, the more he realizes how dense this will be. What fun. No use staring at it, he best get started.

He also realizes he has to make two of these. Not trusting himself to double the recipe, he decides to follow this and just repeat it later.

Currants, raisins, sultanas, cranberries, apricots, and too many other things into a pan! For the love of the gods, that’s a lot of stuff. After mixing that together for ten minutes, Geoffrey doesn’t discreetly add a bit more Sherry than he should. No, why would he do that?

Reading ahead, he notes he forgot to preheat the oven. At least it seems he won’t be needing to for a little bit. There’s also a Swiss roll tin laying about somewhere in here. It takes a few minutes, but he finds it and greases it.

Pastry time. An area in baking he’s familiar with. Flour, icing sugar, and butter mixed together until it appears to be breadcrumbs. Okay, done. Add cold water until it’s a firm dough? Easy.

Strong hands certainly make this easy. Now that’s done, he can leave it to chill. He can check his phone in the meantime. So, it’s about 9:30. He’ll return around ten.

Heading for the living room, Geoffrey falls onto the sofa, staring up at his phone. Elincia texted him again.

Elincia

i know this is probably a bad time to ask you this but can i go over to your place  
neighbors are acting up again and i cant stand it

An interesting request, but Geoffrey is quick to respond.

Of course you can come over. If you want you can help me bake.

Why did he say that? He also forgot a comma, but it’s too late now.

Elincia

yay! baking with you will be fun  
do i need to bring anything?

Too late for everything, gods. Who knows how this will go.

No, I have everything.

Elincia doesn’t respond. She must be driving. Her reasoning is perfectly reasonable. Her neighbors are always outside and they can certainly make some noise. Elincia was probably going about her business, prepping for the party tomorrow, but couldn’t focus due to the raucous noises next door.

Fifteen minutes pass and the doorbell echoes through the house. Geoffrey grunts as he gets up from the sofa and heads towards the front door. Elincia’s standing there, two presents in hand.

“It’s lovely to see you, Geoffrey.” She smiles and moves a little closer to Geoffrey, probably wanting to get away from the cold.

“Welcome. I only just started preparing, so there’s plenty to do.” He moves aside, gesturing for Elincia to enter. She does so happily. Her body is trembling slightly from the cold.

“Gods, it feels nice to be inside. I wasn’t out for too long, but it still got to me.” Elincia then starts struggling to remove her jacket. Geoffrey offers to hold the presents and she hands them over gratefully and hangs her jacket up. “So, what are you making.”

“St. Lucia buns and two mincemeat streusels.”

“Is one for me to raid?” Elincia asks teasingly. Geoffrey sighs softly and nods.

“Shall we head for the kitchen?” Elincia nods and, with a slight bounce in her step, walks towards the kitchen. Geoffrey’s not sure what to do with the two presents, but he still holds onto them and follows Elincia.

“The aroma of baking isn’t here yet...” she sounds disappointed.

“I haven’t put anything into the oven yet, but that should happen soon.”

Elincia smiles happily. “Well, what can I help with?”

Geoffrey thinks for a moment, and decides he can just take the dough for the streusel out now. “We have to roll this out so it fits in that tray.” He sprinkles flour atop the counter and asks if he should start it and Elincia finish it and place it in the tray. She nods and Geoffrey decides to show off a little by rolling up his sleeves before grabbing a rolling pin.

He gets the dough to a more malleable consistency before handing the rolling pin to Elincia. She finishes the job and gets the dough into the tray. Geoffrey grabs the mincemeat and Elincia steals a little bit. When did she get a spoon? Whatever. She looks happy with it.

He puts the mincemeat into the tray and gets some butter to melt alongside flour, semolina and caster sugar. That gets mixed together and Elincia grates it and sprinkles it over the top. It goes into the oven and will be left alone for now.

“I’ll go check on the dough I made for the buns I mentioned,” Geoffrey knows full well it’s not finished but he’s not sure what else to do. Elincia says she’ll go steal the sofa for now.

He takes the time to just think about what they could do. The dough isn’t finished proving. Maybe he’ll go join Elincia. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.

Entering the living room, she asks if the dough’s ready. He says no and offers to let her choose a show to watch in the meantime.

“Will it take that long?” Elincia sounds shocked, but she still reaches for the remote.

“Bread needs time. A good prove will make sure it tastes good.” Geoffrey settles on the sofa. Elincia begins scrolling through Netflix. It takes a few minutes but she eventually decides on a movie. A Christmas themed one. How appropriate.

For some reason, as the movie plays, Elincia is moving closer? Is she cold? That wouldn’t be surprising. Geoffrey offers to grab a blanket for her and she accepts it happily. He leaves and returns with a plush blanket. She smiles warmly and takes the blanket, wrapping herself up in it. How cute...

Twenty minutes pass and Geoffrey leaves to check on the streusel. It’s cooked, so it takes it out and places it on the counter to cool. He’ll cut it out later. Elincia comments on how good it smells when Geoffrey returns.

More time passes, and he realizes he should check on the St. Lucia dough again. He gets up without saying anything and heads from Lucia’s room to see if the dough’s ready. Sure enough, it is. Doubled in size. He takes the bowl and leaves for the kitchen. He calls to Elincia, saying she can help again if she wants. Geoffrey gets an enthusiastic response and she quickly appears at his side, asking what they’re to do.

Divide the dough and roll out four pieces? Easy enough. Geoffrey gives a piece of dough to Elincia for her to roll out. With that done, those are shaped alongside the rest of the dough. Elincia is horribly confused with how to shape it into an ox. Geoffrey is more than happy to show her.

With the dough shaped, it’s time for them to prove again. And preheat the oven. Each bun is placed on a tray and covered. This prove won’t take as long, thankfully.

They both return to the living room and settle on the couch. Elincia wraps herself up in the blanket while Geoffrey plays the movie. Like earlier, she’s moving closer. Why is that? He’s not upset, just confused. It doesn’t take much longer for her to be nearly glued to his side. Geoffrey’s flustered, but he’s determined to not show it. His nervous shifting and the fact he’s biting his lip give him away.

Elincia says nothing through the whole ordeal, but surely she’s got some sort of end goal. Geoffrey checks the time. It’s only been ten minutes. He wants Elincia to say something, but she seems intent on being silent.

It stays like this until it’s time for Geoffrey to put the buns in the oven. Elincia seems to reluctantly move away to let him get up. He takes the time alone in the kitchen to wonder what in the wonder happened there. While he’s there, he also realizes he should make the other streusel. Without saying anything to Elincia, he starts preparing that.

A few minutes later, she appears in the kitchen, looking quiet confused until she realizes what he’s doing.

“And you didn’t tell me we were doing another one of those because..?” her tone is teasing. Geoffrey’s not sure what to say to that.

With no response, she just shrugs and offers to help. And just like earlier, she’s always close to his side. Seriously, why is that? Again, he’s not upset. Just flustered.

—

Even after the mincemeat streusels and buns were made (they ended making another two batches of those as well), Elincia didn’t want to leave. She seems intent on achieving her goal.

Back on the couch, watching another movie, Elincia asks, “Lucia’s going to be home soon, right?” Geoffrey nods, not looking over. “You should open your present now.”

“Oh... all right then. It’s still in the kitchen I think.” Geoffrey shuts off the television and gets up. Elincia follows closely behind. “Why do you want me to open it now?”

“Because,” was all she said.

The present itself is a small thing, wrapped neatly in red and black plaid paper decorated with a golden bow. It’s rectangular and solid. He opens it as neatly as he can, but does end up tearing it multiple times.

With the paper gone, a book is revealed. A simple cover of leather. No engravings giving a hint as to what it is. Opening the book, a two slips of paper fall out. Elincia laughs as Geoffrey bends down to pick them up. A second glance shows they’re tickets to the rather pricey performance going on during this weekend. He feels his heart thumping a little harder than it should be.

“Look at the book,” Elincia says softly, bringing Geoffrey back to the present (pun intended).

The first page shows a recipe for a chocolate and raspberry cake. The rest of the book is a bunch of interesting recipes.

“What’s this for exactly, if you don’t mind me asking?” Geoffrey asks, glancing up at Elincia. She’s smiling again.

“All the treats I’d like to try. I believe you’re the best baker around, so I’d like you to make them when you can. As for the tickets, I want you to join me. They’re for Sunday, so the party won’t interfere with anything,” how is she so calm? Geoffrey thinks he could very well burst any moment.

“Thank you, Elincia... this is lovely. And I’ll gladly go with you,” amazing. He managed to say that in a mostly steady voice.

Elincia says nothing, opting to smother Geoffrey with a hug. Though stunned for a second, he returns it. What a Christmas this will be, he thinks as he lightly kisses the top of her head. Hopefully she didn’t notice. Wait, she chuckles. Oh gods...

“Excuse me, what are you two doing in the kitchen?” Lucia’s voice rings out, a bit shocked.

“When did you get here?” Elincia is just as shocked. Geoffrey laughs and gives his sister a smug look. He’s won their competition.

**Author's Note:**

> Here are the recipes mentioned in the story if any of you are curious.
> 
> https://www.bbc.com/food/recipes/mincemeatstreusel_73426
> 
> http://www.pbs.org/food/recipes/pauls-st-lucia-buns/


End file.
